Further changes to alcopops in liquor reforms

Justice Minister Judith Collins has suggested there will be further changes to rules on alcopops in liquor reforms due before Parliament.

The Alcohol Reform Bill bans off-licence stores from selling ready-to-drink beverages (RTDs) with more than 6 per cent alcohol content and more than 1.5 standard drinks per container.

Mrs Collins this morning hinted that this could be amended.

"There will be a provision on RTDs, and that provision will be a bit different from what we did in May, just to make it more workable and more flexible to make it better able to react to any initiatives by the industry that might make it counter-productive to what we're trying to do."

Her office refused to elaborate on what the changes could be.

The Government originally proposed restricting all RTDs to no more than 5 per cent alcohol content.

But this was later amended to 6 per cent, with higher-strength drinks permitted in restaurants and bars.

Alcohol industry giants have put pressure on the minister to scrap rules altogether for ready-to-drink beverages, arguing that they unfairly targeted one part of the industry and threatened to breach international trade rules.

Mrs Collins dismissed the suggestion that changing the rules on RTDs would lead to complaints to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

"The WTO threat is just nonsense... because we have never proposed preventing the importation or sale of particular products.